Screen method and apparatus

ABSTRACT

A screen apparatus and a method for making the screen apparatus in which metal cans are reshaped and assembled into a screen of uniformly reshaped metal cans which are fixedly attached to each other and to a frame means. The method provides for metal cans such as used aluminum beer cans, to be precleaned; then reshaped, crushed in a generally uniform manner and the crushed cans more thoroughly cleaned. The cleaned and reshaped cans are then assembled and fixedly attached to each other such as with an epoxy glue, mechanical, or other means and attached to a framework. The assembled screen may then be coated to provide a more esthetic screen.

United States Patent Walter Dittmer, Jr.

3,416,217 12/1968 Walker ABSTRACT: A screen apparatus and] a method for making the screen apparatus in which metal cans: are reshaped and assembled into a screen of uniformly reshaped metal cans which are fixedly attached to each other and to a frame means. The method provides for metal cans such as used aluminum beer cans, to be precleaned; then reshaped, crushed in a generally uniform manner and the crushed cans more thoroughly cleaned. The cleaned and reshaped cans are then assembled and fixedly attached to each other such as with an epoxy glue, mechanical, or other means and attached to a framework. The assembled screen may then be coated to provide a more esthetic screen.

SCREEN METHOD AND APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to screens and the method of manufacturing screens for use as building panels, or the like, for screening buildings from the sun and especially may be adapted for use in remodeling old buildings to provide a more esthetic looking building in an economic manner. The invention may also be used for room dividers, and the like, in the interior of buildings, and for shade screens, and the like, on the exterior of buildings.

The invention also relates to a novel use of used cans, such as used aluminum beer cans, which would otherwise be processed and wasted as garbage, and frequently used to litter the countryside.

2. Description of the Prior Art In the past it has been suggested to reuse the metal in metal cans and especially in aluminum cans because of the value of the metal in these cans. However, these reuse programs have not generally been too successful, and cams have generally ended up being thrown or stacked as garbage, where they are processed such as by compacting and crushing for use as land fill or being incinerated prior to being used as land fill.

Metal cans have been especially troublesome in garbage disposals since the cans take up a large volume of space when not compacted or crushed, or ground into small pieces, and are difficult to crush because of their strength. The scrap metal or reclamation program has not generally been too successful because of the economics of gathering the metal cans in relationship to the value of the metal in the cans.

It has also been common in the past to make up various types of ornamental grill work and structural panels. A typical structural panel would be the commonly used honeycomb panels which may provide honeycombed or hexagonal interconnected shapes connected together and located between a pair of sandwich members or skin to get a lightweight yet strong structural member. Ornamental screens have typically been of aluminum or steel and have been used as room dividers, sun screens for outside of buildings, and as decorative panels. These members are generally pressed from solid sheets of material and painted various colors, or alternatively may be assembled from available shapes produced by aluminum companies and steel companies. One such prior art grill or panel provides a multifaceted grill based upon the as sembly of interchangeable parts of uniform character which may be arranged in different ways to produce different architectural effects, while yet another aluminum screens are made for sunshades, solar screens, handrails, and may be found in the various shapes and types of panels both solid and screened for use as desired. However, none of these prior art devices are adapted for utilizing scrap and waste metals to produce ornamental screens or panels while assisting in the community waste and trash disposal problems of the communities in providing an economical reuse or otherwise waste and litter products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an apparatus having a frame in which generally uniformly reshaped metal cans have been fixedly attached to each other and to the frame to provide a screen or panel which may be coated with paint, to provide an ornamental and useful sun screen. The metal cans are uniformly shaped either singley or two crushed together in a generally rectangular shape and are fixedly attached to each other with an epoxy glue in a manner to leave openings between the cans. A method is utilized in making the decorative screen apparatus which includes steps of precleaning used metal cans and reshaping the metal cans prior to assembling them into a screen apparatus. The method may also include the step of cleaning the cans more thoroughly after they have been reshaped or crushed which cleaning might include drying the cans, such as in a tumbler, following a cleaning in a cleaning solution and rinsing in water. The cans may then be assembled as desired by fixedly attaching each can to another, such as by epoxy glue and to a framework for holding and reenforcing the screen. The cans already having been cleaned after crushing, are prepared for the step of coating the screen, such as by painting, following priming as necessary. It will of course be realized that while aluminum beer cans have been successfully used in the present invention, it is anticipated that steel cans could also be used and cans other than beer cans, and that while an epoxy glue has been found successful in assembling the present screen, other means for fixedly attaching the cans together could also be used and that while normally each can will be reshaped separately, it has also been found that two cans can be reshaped or crushed together in interlocking pairs which hold themselves in a manner not requiring additional bonding therebetween to form larger building blocks for building the screen or panel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be apparent from a study of the written description and the drawings, in which FIG. 1 shows a flow diagram of one method embodiment;

FIG. 2 shows a sectional view of one embodiment of the present apparatus;

FIG. 3 shows a single reshaped metal can;

FIG. 4 shows yet a sectional view of a second embodiment of the present apparatus in which a pair of interlocking cans have been crushed together;

FIG. 5 shows a corner sectional view of the frame with one can connected thereto; and

FIG. 6 shows an interlocking pair of reshaped cans.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to FIG. 1, there can be seen a block or flow diagram of the basic process of the present invention. An accumulation of cans such as aluminum beer cans which may, for instance, come in the regular 12 02. size, fed into the process at 9, are precleaned at 10, which precleaning may simply amount to spraying or prerinsing with clear water to remove any dirt or sticky or dried chemicals that may be on the cans. Precleaned cans which may be still wet, are then fed into the reshaping step at 11 where the cans are crushed to a generally uniform shape. For instance crushing could be performed by a series of three plungers hitting the tubular-shaped cans from three sides. The first plunger could hit the can from the elongated cylindrical side of the can while a second plunger located approximately from the first plunger may crush the can along the elongated side also, but 90 away from the first plunger. Finally, a third plunger could reshape the can by plunging from one or both ends of the cylindrical-shaped can, thus a crushed aluminum can could be reshaped from a cylindrical hollow enclosed shape to a generally rectangular crushed shape with a similar size to a pack of cigarettes, or the like, such as 1 inch by 2 inches by 3 inches. Cans once crushed or reshaped are ejected for further processing. It will be clear at this point that it is anticipated that the feeding of the cans into a reshaping device can be done substantially automatic, by having the cans being fed through a spray of water either singley or two or more cans together into an automatic crushing device in which the plungers, for instance, may trip relays which activate each plunger either in series or simultaneously to produce the desired shape of the can and then eject the reshaped can from the reshaping mechanism.

The next step is cleaning illustrated at 12 and is required in order to obtain a satisfactory surface for gluing or otherwise attaching the cans together to form the screen, and also in order to obtain a proper coating of the screen after it is assembled. The cleaning may consist of tumbling in an oakite or other cleaning solution, then rinsing in clear water and drying, which may also be by tumbling the reshaped cans in air or by forcing the air through the tumblers. This process can be speeded up by utilizing warm or hot air during the drying. After the cans have been reshaped and cleaned, the next step is assembling 13 which includes putting the reshaped cans together in the desired positions and fixedly attaching them to each other and to a framework to hold the finished screen. It is of course anticipated that fixtures will be utilized in assembling of the cans. The cans may be fixedly attached to each other and to the frame with a glue, such as the well-known epoxy glues which while requiring premixing of the catalyst has provided a satisfactory answer to the strength requirements for holding the cans to each other. Typically these cans would be glued on one end portion of an elongated portion of each reshaped can and glued together, leaving openings in the screen.

It is of course anticipated that other means of fixedly attaching the cans could be used within the purview of the invention such as by an aluminum-welding process, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

If the assembled reshaped cans are not assembled in the frame, they must then be placed in a frame which may be an aluminum, square or rectangular framework made up of angled aluminum z-bars, which may be glued to the reshaped cans with the same epoxy glue or other attaching methods used to hold the cans together. Following the framing of the screen, a coating step 14 will normally be necessary to provide an esthetic effect to the screen. This step may be performed by first priming with a wash etch or other primer prior to painting with an enamel or other type of paint which may be performed by dipping into the paint solution. Painting could also be by brush, spraying, electrostatic coating or airless spraying, or any other means to provide a coating to the screens. Once the coating operation is complete, the process is generally finished and the output panels or screens leave the process at 20 for utilization as desired.

It will, of course, be clear at this point that while aluminum beer cans have been suggested, other typed of metal cans could also be used, such as aluminum cans for soft or sodatype drinks, or steel cans with various coating without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It will also be clear that certain steps, if not the whole process, can be performed either manually or automatically, depending on the volume of screens to be produced. For instance, the inventor has developed a machine which automatically feeds the cans through the precleaning operation into the reshaping step, reshaped the cans and ejects them without having to han' dle the cans during these steps of the process. Also the tumbling and cleaning following the reshaping is done en masse and it is anticipated that assembling and coating can in the future be performed on a large scale with rapid assembling and coating tools and equipment.

Turning now to FIG. 2, there can be seen a sectional view of a screen made in accordance with the process of FIG. 1 in which a frame 23 has a vertical arm 24 and a horizontal arm 25 and which may be made of aluminum bar and has reshaped metal cans 15 having sides 16, ends 17 and 18 which have been crushed to a generally uniform shape and size and fixedly attached to frame 23 by an attaching means 22 which may be an epoxy glue or other adhesive, but which of course could be done by other means such as welding, or brazing. However, the epoxy glue has been found to provide the necessary strength requirements for holding the cans 15 together and to the frame 23 provided the framed sections are made within a reasonable size. Cans 23 can be seen to be fixedly attached to each other by epoxy glue 21 on the elongated end portion of the reshaped cans 15 in a manner to give a substantial portion of overlap between the cans 15 for suffieient support therebetween while providing openings 19 between the attached cans which allows air and the like to pass through while providing a shading surface.

It will of course be clear that the cans do not have to be attached to each other in a uniform manner, and thus as can be seen from FIG. 2, the openings 19 may be varies in size. These variations can be further accented by placing some cans in the screen for connecting on the transverse side whereby one end of the elongated side will stock out from the screen. Thus, with a properly oriented assembly line technique, screens could provide various esthetic effects and in fact each one could be slightly different from each and every other one, providing and artistic quality to the panels. This is especially true since the cans are reshaped to generally the same shape, but each will be crushed slightly different from each other one, and since each screen can be coated in as many different colors and styles as desired, a relatively mass produced screen or panel can be provided in which each screen is different from previous screens and is a creation in itself.

FIG. 3 shows a single can which has been reshaped to the general rectangular shape of this preferred embodiment and has cans 15 having two end portions 17 and 18 of the elongated side 24, sides 27, top and bottom sides 16. Can 15 can be seen attached to frame 23 by cement 22 and having vertical frame member 24 and horizontal arm member 25. It will of course be realized that different sizes of reshaped cans can be made by varying the length of the stroke of the crushing mechanism and by the size of the can that is fed into the machine. It should be pointed out that it has been found desirable to utilize cans which have both ends 17 and 18 still therein, having used one or more holes punched in one end to remove the contents therefrom. These type cans have better structural features following the reshaping operation than cans which have one end removed.

Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown a sectional view of yet a second embodiment of the present apparatus, having a frame 29 with a frame member 30 similar to the frame 24 and frame member 31 similar to frame member 25 but having two reshaped cans 26 interlocked together which have been reshaped to a block. It has been found that two aluminum cans can be crushed or reshaped together to come out with an enlarged block 26 which may be advantageously crushed together in a manner that does not require any bonding between the cans other than the locking features of the crushed surfaces of the cans. These pairs of reshaped cans 26 are similarly glued by adhesive 27 to each other and by adhesive 28 to frame 29 to form a screen similar to the embodiment of FIG. 2, except having larger blocks. It has also been found that the ends of cans 26 when crushed together tend to have ends of cans 32 angled to make a desirable addition to the screen which is to be used for a sun screen for a building since when glued end to end and properly placed, the angled portion desirably provides an angle whereby the sun may be prevented from passing the screen while allowing insiders to see through the screen and allow fresh air to pass therethrough, whereby cooling breezes and the like may reach a building.

FIG. 5 shows a corner of the frame 29 having members 30 and 31 and being glued to a can 26 at 28, while FIG. 6 shows yet another view of a can or pair of reshaped cans 26 glued to a frame 29 at 28.

It will be clear at this point that a method for producing screens or panels, and screen and panel apparatuses have been provided for the utilization of used or empties metal cans which would otherwise end up as garbage or trash or littering areas such as the bottom of streams, and the like. Thus the reutilization of the cans in this manner will make them of economic value and add additional inventive and encouragement of collecting cans for resale and utilization in the present process and apparatus. It will of course be clear that other variations in both the process and the apparatus are anticipated as being within the scope of the present invention, and these include utilizing different sizes, and shapes of cans as well as different types of frames and different means of attaching the reshaped cans together.

Accordingly, this invention is not to be construed as limited to the particular form disclosed herein since these are to be regarded as illustrative, rather than restrictive.

Iclaim:

1. A method of making a screen apparatus comprising the steps of: reshaping a plurality of metal cans into substantially uniform shapes; making a frame of predetermined shape, fixedly attaching said reshaped metal cans together and to said frame to provide a decorative shade screen having spaced openings therein, whereby said screen is adapted for shading sunlight while allowing the flow of air therethrough.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1, but including the step of preparing said metal cans for receiving a coating material.

3. The method in accordance with claim 2 in which said preparing step includes cleaning before and after said metal cans are reshaped.

4. The method in accordance with claim 3 but including the step of coating said screen apparatus following said step of as sembling.

5. The method according to claim 4 in which said reshaping of metal cans includes crushing pairs of metal cans into generally uniformly shaped interlocking pairs.

6. The method according to claim 6 in which said fixedly at taching said reshaped metal cans together includes gluing together said metal cans.

7. The method according to claim 6 in which said coating step includes painting said primed screen.

8. The method according to claim 7 in which said metal cans are reclaimed used aluminum cans.

9. A screen apparatus comprising in combination: frame means; a plurality of metal cans reshaped to a substantially uniform shape; said reshaped metal cans being fixedly at tached to said frame and to each other and being disposed relative to each other to provide openings in said screen adapted for the passage of air.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9 in which said reshaped metal cans are aluminum and are fixedly attached to each other and to said frame means with an adhesive material.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10 in which said crushed metal cans, frame means and adhesive material are coated with paint.

[2. The apparatus according to claim 11 in which said reshaped metal cans include said cans being crushed in interlocking pairs. 

1. A method of making a screen apparatus comprising the steps of: reshaping a plurality of metal cans into substantially uniform shapes; making a frame of predetermined shape, fixedly attaching said reshaped metal cans together and to said frame to provide a decorative shade screen having spaced openings therein, whereby said screen is adapted for shading sunlight while allowing the flow of air therethrough.
 2. The method in accordance with claim 1, but including the step of preparing said metal cans for receiving a coating material.
 3. The method in accordance with claim 2 in which said preparing step includes cleaning before and after said metal cans are reshaped.
 4. The method in accordance with claim 3 but including the step of coating said screen apparatus following said step of assembling.
 5. The method according to claim 4 in which said reshaping of metal cans includes crushing pairs of metal cans into generally uniformly shaped interlocking pairs.
 6. The method according to claim 6 in which said fixedly attaching said reshaped metal cans together includes gluing together said metal cans.
 7. The method according to claim 6 in which said coating step includes painting said primed screen.
 8. The method according to claim 7 in which said metal cans are reclaimed used aluminum cans.
 9. A screen apparatus comprising in combination: frame means; a plurality of metal cans reshaped to a substantially uniform shape; said reshaped metal cans being fixedly attached to said frame and to each other and being disposed relative to each other to provide openings in said screen adapted for the passage of air.
 10. The apparatus according to claim 9 in which said reshaped metal cans are aluminum and are fixedly attached to each other and to said frame means with an adhesive material.
 11. The apparatus according to claim 10 in which said crushed metal cans, frame means and adhesive material are coated with paint.
 12. The apparatus according to claim 11 in which said reshaped metal cans include said cans being crushed in interlocking pairs. 